Theatre school: you’re going to miss weddings and funerals. You won’t see your family. This is the only way to work in the theatre.
19 year old me: yes, this is reasonable. This is a healthy way to approach this career goal. This is totally normal and not at all manipulative.

I’ll go on to say the current system favors privileged kids whose parents can supplement their income for years until they are able to make a decent wage from the work. I only got through theatre school because my husband was in Afghanistan so we got hazard and separation pay.

People who are saying “but it has to be this way!” No it fucking doesn’t. When the artistic director is making 200k+ the actors deserve more than a $500 stipend for the run of the show. You can look up the tax forms of any nonprofit theatre and see what their top employees make.

When you see how much the bloated admin makes you know some of that could move over to the artists. http://Guidestar.com  is a great resource for this search. This is why I serve on the board of a small community theatre, my help is actually needed and makes an impact.

We ain’t even touched on the body shaming in theatre. The extremity to which my eating disorder operated so I could abide by the “sexy bodies on stage” mentality which really meant skinny bodies on stage was so fucking painful.

When theatres start to reopen can we all agree to fight against this shit? Theatre artists deserve personal lives and a livable wage and no employer abuse. #TheatreTrauma

Share you stories #theatretrauma and I’ll be sharing all of them. Please share when you’ve been racially profiled in casting as well. When I tried to do my masters thesis on racial bias in casting only one theatre on the west coast was willing to discuss it. One.

Y’all I got married on a Monday because the students were on an equity schedule and I couldn’t miss class. My husband was able to line up his leave with the fucking army, but I couldn’t miss class. #theatretrauma

Last but certainly not least; if your favorite theatre company hasn’t said/done shit about #BLM it’s time to find a new favorite theatre company.